Buckshots

      In early ’74 we opened Amigoland Mall in Brownsville, Texas.   This coincided with a shopping center leasing convention in Dallas and we came up with the brainstorm of flying the retailers down for the grand opening.      The plan was to load up two jets with the deal makers attending the conference, go to the new mall’s cocktail party, take buses over to the “Drive In” restaurant in Matamoros, Mexico for dinner, then return everyone to the airport and fly them back to Dallas.         In mid afternoon, we loaded buses outside the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas, put large sombrero on everyone's heads, took them to the planes at Love Field and boarded for the ride to south Texas.  These guys did not get out much and this was a real adventure for them.  They drank a lot on the plane, landed, got to the mall and drank a lot more at the cocktail reception.          I was part of the crew that herded them onto buses to take them to Mexico for dinner.  Now, Mexico has always

       One of the perks I enjoyed under Fred Simon’s leadership at Simon, was the opportunity to work on a variety of shopping center projects.   This included what was the first phase of the downtown Indianapolis re-development in 1980 called Two West Washington, in the former Wasson’s Department store, at the corner of Meridian and Washington Street.      We were working on a Brooks Brothers Store, Custom Shirt Shop and others, when out of nowhere came an alleged opportunity for a Gucci store, sponsored by Cyril Magnin of Joseph Magnin stores in San Francisco.  WHAT?          It all happened so fast, arrangements were made for a news conference with Cyril Magnin and we were to fly him back to Indianapolis for the event.  On my 30th birthday, Fred sent me on one of the planes to pick him up in San Francisco and fly him back.  His entourage included his little dog, Tippy and a strange young man who was “supposed” to look after the dog.         We started back to Indiana a

      I had been in marketing at Simon for around 8 years and was attempting to outdo each grand opening  and  special event's activity at our malls.  In 1980, Fred Simon changed my life and career path when he brought me into the leasing department.              I joined leasing at the same time as Max Reiswerg, whose parents owned the kosher meat market in Broad Ripple.   Max and I shared an office and Fred would yell down the hall, “Get the butcher’s kid and the redneck down here!”   Max was a blessing for me and would interpret the Yiddish phrases bandied about and directed at me.   I quickly learned enough to determine when I was in trouble or not.       I learned the science of leasing shopping centers under the tutelage of Fred, Irv Katz and a crew of really enjoyable individuals.   A new factor for me was the accompaniment of food at every available opportunity.   All meetings were an occasion to eat and I was quickly indoctrinated into the Fred Simon dining cus